Streaking Giants Make It 8 in Row

The San Francisco Giants have an eight-game winning streak, and now they might be getting Barry Bonds back.

Ellis Burks had three hits for the second consecutive game and Alan Embree got another big out in relief as the Giants rallied from an early four-run deficit Saturday in a 7-6 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

“This whole week, we’ve been playing good ball,” Burks said. “We’re getting great pitching, timely hitting and great defense, and that makes you win eight in a row. We’ve just got to keep it rolling.”

Bonds didn’t start for the seventh consecutive game because of a hairline fracture to the tip of his right thumb. But he struck out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth in his first at-bat in a week, played left field in the bottom of the ninth and is expected to start today in the last game before the All-Star break.

After the game, Bonds said there was swelling in the thumb.

“I’m going to try and give it a shot,” he said of today’s game. “Even if I get a bit of tenderness, it’s at the point where I can’t make it any worse.”

Burks led off the fourth with his 10th homer, doubled and scored in the fifth and had a run-scoring infield hit in the sixth. He’s six for eight the last two games with three doubles and is a .389 hitter against the Cardinals in his career.

“I don’t want to look for an explanation, I just keep doing it,” Burks said. “Some teams you have success against and some teams you don’t.”

Embree retired Fernando Vina with the bases loaded in the seventh inning for the second consecutive game, preserving a 7-5 lead. On Friday, Embree got Vina to ground into a double play, and on Saturday he struck him out.

“We used about everybody in the pen and they all did the job,” Giant Manager Dusty Baker said. “He really gutted it out.”

The Cardinals have lost three in a row for the first time since June 3-5 and their National League Central lead was shaved to seven games over the Cincinnati Reds despite a 13-hit attack.

The Cardinals left 14 runners on base.

“The way I look at it is, how’d those 14 guys get on base?” Manager Tony La Russa said. “Our guys played as hard as they could.”

Mark McGwire, who has decided to skip the All-Star game to rest his sore right knee, sat for the second game in a row. He won’t play today, either.

Cardinal starter Garrett Stephenson (9-5) squandered a four-run lead after three innings. Stephenson, whose start was pushed back two days because of flu, has lost five of his last six decisions. He had trouble keeping his fastball down, giving up six runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings.